


Short guide to the Timeless verse.

by GlowyMimic



Category: Elfquest
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-14 08:29:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13586235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlowyMimic/pseuds/GlowyMimic
Summary: Felt the need to write this down due to working on a very large fic.





	Short guide to the Timeless verse.

  * Fair warning. My verse is _absurd_.  

  * The Timeless are mostly immortal elves who live in an intensely magic rich environment of their own making.  

  * There’s about 140-150 Timeless.  

  * The area they live in is called the Shadowgrounds by elves, Empyra by humans and Heart’s Home by trolls.  

  * The Shadowgrounds are surrounded by a mountain range called the Wreath Mountains and is guarded by both elves, trolls and humans.  

  * The Timeless live in large village named Fire-Rock.


  * Beneath Fire-Rock lies Under-Rock, the first village of the Timeless. It’s used mostly as storage nowadays. The younger generations tend to be deeply unnerved by the silent city and find it almost labyrinthian in design.   

  * The Timeless’ founders are nine High Ones who are still very much alive. Their names are: Chenah, Maphara, Zharo,Serrilur, Merheen, Yionyi, Ocuoros, Sharni, Calidus.  

  * The leader of the Timeless is, in general, a woman named Darkfire, but in the present she spends much time establishing bonds, deals and the like with the tribes the Timeless have come in contact with. Her son, Beyond is left in charge when Darkfire is out.  

  * The magic environment in the Shadowgrounds comes from the Timeless pouring their magic into the earth to the point where Abode’s natural power sapping nature was destroyed and has no hold on the area anymore.   

  * The magic has mostly affected plant life. The grass is a dark cyan and the trees come in all kinds of unnatural colours. From molten gold, purple to bright, luminous blue.  

  * The magic is kept in check by the Timeless themselves and there is a high effort in place to make sure it doesn’t go bad.  

  * The magic environment has largely restored their powers, much like the Palace would.


  * The main force that has allow the Timeless’ powers restoration is a chunk of Palace stone Zharo took with him after the crash.  

  * The Timeless have had contact with Wolfriders in the distance past and four immortal children of Timmorn are among the oldest of the Timeless. Their names are. Little Sun, Ice-Eye. Marakka and Ennits.  

  * The main bloodline Timmorn has a hand in is : Timmorn - Little Sun - Darkfire - Beyond - Shadow-Caster - Shadow-Dancer.  

  * Only elves who are related to Timmorn have soulnames.  

  * There’s a few Wolfriders among the Timeless, but only one this has their wolfblood.  

  * Pyre, a firemaker from Prey-Pacer’s time, wolfblood removed by Merheen.  

  * Cone, from Skyfire’s time, still has her wolfblood.(Friend’s character)  

  * Rellah, the lovely, angry woman dressed like a sailor moon villain was found half dead and abandoned by Beyond in 4240 A.C (Skyfire’a time) who brought her back to the Shadowgrounds, where she now lives. She appears to have amnesia and can’t clearly recall her last two months with the Wolfriders. The healers of the Timeless believe the amnesia was triggered by grief and trauma.  

  * The Timeless have have had contact with the Wolfriders twice. Once in Timmorn’s time and Skyfire’s time. Skyfire Recognized Merheen who had gone out on jaunt after regaining his powers. Their child is named Buniq.  

  * The Timeless have members from all canon tribes in their tribe. (Except Wave Dancers)  

  * Glider Danahree, a treeshaper who had a mental breakdown and fled Blue Mountain, beating one of the Chosen Eight senseless and abducting one of the ‘still’ gliders who maintained some of the mountain. Said ‘still’ glider was a former member of the Timeless and Danahree used her as a guide to find her way to them.  

  * Glider Ankar, a shy man who was basically abducted by Buniq when they Recognize each other. (I should note Buniq is a rather small woman and Ankar is normal Glider height. He pretty much let her drag him off.)  

  * (Proto) Go-Back Tiak, born while Icetooth was leader of the elves that would eventually become Go-Backs. He became lost in a snowstorm and ended up in a forest and eventually found himself in the Shadowgrounds.  

  * Maaldri, a healer from the Sun Folk who crossed the desert in a downpour, after a year of several deaths she couldn’t prevent. It took a toll on her mind and she came to believe the other villagers blamed her for the deaths. She found her way to the Shadowgrounds after nearly 2 months of travel.  

  * The Timeless generally have little interest in regaining the Palace, but plan to one day get their entire island (and _everybody_ on it) off planet.  

  * Recognition has largely been dismantled among the Timeless by the healers and is generally viewed as a faulty, broken mechanism. Timeless women are able to choose when they wish to be pregnant.    

  * If Recognition does happen between two people who have no interest in each other, but go ahead with it, there is no expectations of ‘lifemating’. People stay with the person that makes them happy.  

  * If a Recognition leads to the people involved fighting, harassing (see Cutter’s continued stalking of Leetah) or the like, the aggressor will be put under guard and kept under close watch by armour clad guards. The other person will likewise receive guards to keep them safe in case the aggressor somehow slips past their guards. This will go on until things are worked out. The aggressor will be tossed into a cell in the troll realm if necessary.  

  * The healer Maaldri is able to outright cancel Recognition if it becomes a ‘neither will give in’ situation. So far there has only been one cancellation performed by Maaldri.  

  * In Timeless society, the pace of how things proceed are entirely up the woman hit by Recognition.



 

The Shadowgrounds was originally an peninsula located in the vastdeep water, close to Blue Mountain.  


The Timeless tore the Shadowgrounds from the mainland when the Hoan G’Tay Sho started raiding their human neighbours for sacrifices to Blue Mountain. Due to the ridiculous amount of power the Timeless have and the trolls’ advanced technology its been turned into a sailing island.

 

They are known to still return the island to its place of origin. (It’s mainly to confuse the Gliders.)  


Relationship with the Gliders: Phenomenally bad, mainly due to Winnowill stealing the souls of five children in the distant past. Their healers were able to free the children, but four of them remain asleep, unable to wake up. Love-Bond, the firth was able to wake up, but fled and disappeared into Under-Rock. She’s behind a hostile hivemind that pulls others into striking out against Winnowill whenever she tries to enter the Shadowgrounds.

 

The feud with the Gliders is longstanding, but they only know two of them by name and two others by horrible nicknames.

Winnowill: The reason for the feud in the first place. The Timeless nickname for her is ‘Tick’. ‘Horrible pet cat’ if you ask Shadow-Dancer.

Yeyeen: She has guts and has been know to try and hunt in the Shadowgrounds.

‘ _What_.’: Tyldak.

‘Old man’, ‘blind bird’: Voll.

They have had contact with the other Chosen Eight but they have a hard time telling them apart and just name them after the symbols on their clothes.  
There are other reasons for their bad relations, such as Beyond almost successfully murdering Winnowill when he accidentally got sent to Blue Mountain.

Voll generally thinks the Timeless are utterly insane and driven to savagery due to the world’s harshness.

\----

Powers unique to the Timeless.

  
Shadow wandering: An ability developed by High One Merheen while traveling in the Palace.

This power allows the user to step into shadows and travel within.

Know users are: Merheen, his two daughters Weaver-of-Shadows and Buniq and his great-grandchild Beyond.  


Abode severely maimed Merheen’s powers on arrival and it remained mangled until 2967 where it came back, almost at full strength.  
  
Weaver-of-Shadow’s skills have surpassed her fathers. She is able to pull on shadows and weave them into cloth.

 

Beyond and Buniq’s skills are at the most basic level since they both dislike using their powers. They have been known to get displaced by their powers and have even ended up in Blue Mountain once.  They both suspect it’s Merheen messing with them.

 

(Reality Warping) World shaping/World meddling, World mangling:

  
A skill High One Zharo gained from his mentor/mother, Lokya, a being from a lovecraftian-ish race that lived on the High One’s Homeworld when their ancestors were small animals.

  
It allows for manipulation and twisting of reality as the user sees fit.   
This power is rare.   


Known users: Zharo, Stormfire, Shadow-Dancer.

While there are 3 users, Stormfire accidentally used his powers on himself when saying ‘I’m skull and bones’ and became just that. He’s still alive in a way, and can reach out and talk to others, but is unable undo his mistake. He is an angry, vicious person and used his powers on both humans and his own kind. His ‘death’ is considered to be good thing.

  
His bones reside in Under-Rock, but his voice drifts up to the village above, demanding help and arguing with Beyond or his parents.

 

The levels of this power varies depending on the user and their nature.  


Zharo outranks both Stormfire and Shadow-Dancer, due to sheer age and knowledge. His powers are largely unused due to Zharo’s lack of imagination/need to use it. His powers are described as being hammer-ish in nature, in the sense its range tends to be great, but doesn’t really seem to allow for specifics or small things, doing so seems to put a massive strain on him.   


Zharo’s powers are very ‘will’ related, in the sense his influence can be fought off by strong willed people.

 

He mostly uses his powers on the Vikanna’s braves, who like testing their will against his powers. He typically just makes them into little figurines.

  
Stormfire’s skills are largely unknown at this point, but his powers seems be inherently destructive. He is known to have destroyed areas with his powers and rendered them barren.

  * The Tomb forest is a creation of Stormfire and is home animals twisted into murderous monsters by his powers.


  * Gold Hides, massive, twelve feet tall monstrosities, somewhat bear-ish in looks are among the most dangerous creatures within.
  * Old Nes, the nightmare bear is suspected to be his creation as well.



He mangled two of his tribe mates who were in wrapstuff from year 3012 to 4180 where the healers were able to restore them with Shadow-Dancer’s help.

Going by his name alone, his powers are likely volatile and unpredictable. According to Shadow-Dancer, Stormfire’s powers are weak and he has ‘lost his place in the world.’

Shadow-Dancer’s skills are like a small, fine knife when compared to Zharo’s. He tends to use his powers for what he considers good or fun. His powers’s reach is...weird and seems to wax and wane.

He is known to pester both humans and trolls, but is generally not truely malicious towards the friends of the Timeless.

Enemies on the other hand…

Shadow-Dancer tends to alter and twist the body of anybody considered an enemy (think human being turned into a tree) and will do so with a song in his heart.

 

He has a fondness for making people trip, for some odd reason.  

  
He has zero control over the weather and is afraid of thunder and lightning.

 

Other: Due to a crossover with Dragon Age, the Timeless are in possession of dragons. They have two, High Song and Byssa. (They don’t really show that much, really.)

Other elf tribes the Timeless have contact with.

 **Vine Weavers** : Elves that used to live in a far away jungle, but were driven off by humans. They live in the depths of the Uro forest, rather close to the Timeless. They dress in plant material, their leader is named Rixanna. Numbers:11.   


**Evergreeen isle Islanders** : Elves that live on a big island. Their relationship with the Timeless is generally very rocky due to a Recognition feud that got completely out of hand. Opposite the Timeless, Recognition is highly revered and deeply honoured. (Which the Timeless find this deeply disturbing) Your recognized partner is seen as your one true mate and there can be nobody else.

Their founders are five High Ones known as: Anitra,Cerne,Gralen,Kekana,Melander and Nila.

After a violent Recognition debacle, the Timeless haven’t had contact with them for nearly 80 years. Anitra, a strong sender is able to reach them when the Shadowgrounds sail within reach and typically demands/pleads with them to return. Numbers: 16.

 

 **Bailon’s group** : A group of elves that used to live near the Timeless. They are intensely self serving. Their past with the Timeless is very conflict heavy and were driven out of the Shadowgrounds when they tried and almost succeeded in murdering Darkfire. Their current location is unknown. Numbers: Around 14 when they were driven out.

 

 **Mist Singers** : Next to nothing is known about this group except they live on an island covered in fog. A small group of explorers were tricked into helping Bailon’s group and tried to murder Dakfire.  Most of them were driven out alongside Bailon’s group.

The one remaining, the healer Erracin lives with the Timeless and had basically sworn himself to Darkfire out of immense feeling of guilt over the attack. The Timeless haven’t been able to locate his tribe so far and Errcin refuses to tell them anything. Numbers:  Unknown.

  


Trolls

The trolls, named Silver Hills trolls, are ruled by Queen Deep Gleam. Numbers: About 192.  


  * The Silver Hills trolls were originally split off from Guttlekraw’s group during Greymung’s rebellion and consisted mostly of women and children seeking a better life for themselves.  

  * Their domain is named Deep Shine.


  * Their relationship with the Timeless is very close and harmonious. Several trolls live in Fire-Rock and several elves live in Deep Shine.


  * The trolls have markets in Fire-Rock’s lower plaza where they sell/trade items.  

  * Their realm is built entirely by troll hands and tools.  

  * They are very focused on developing their technology and as such have the most developed tech.  

  * They have elevators.  

  * Due to two raid attempts by Guttlekraw, their entire realm is surrounded by metal walls.  

  * The currency of the Shadowgrounds, large gold doubloons, are made by the trolls.They are used mainly by the humans and trolls, while the Timeless trade items and help.



 

          The most well known trolls are:

  * Queen Deep Gleam, the heart of the Shadowgrounds. She was 16 when Greymung rebelled. She fled to the surface with 23 others, intent on building a new home far away in the south-west.


  * Troll lady Deep Dusk lives with the Timeless and is an artisan. She’s often found hanging around Darkfire or Chenah’s audience chambers. She’s very honest about her fondness for ogling people and likes flirting with whoever has her attention. She’s consider to be fairly weird by her kin.  

  * High Shimmer. She’s an immensely ancient and very small lady who enjoys working in the underground gardens she managed to create. She’s a herbal healer. She seems to enjoy being around the Palace orbs the Timeless have managed to create as they remind her of ‘the quiet, endless days of her original home’.   

  * Dark Peak. A hunter, explorer and a trader. She’s known for having spent more years living with the area’s human than living underground with her own kin. She’s considered to be hero as she’s stopped a raid by group humans from the Hoan-G'Tay-Sho tribe and nearly gave her life doing so. She’s called ‘Systir’ by all children.   

  * Bone-Dent, a pit boss who somehow always ends up far away from his pit and surrounded by elves who admire his arms or in the middle of an argument between Beyond and Weaver or Padara.


  * Deep Shine and Under-Rock played home to the human tribes during a bizarre, 15 year long period of massive snowfall.


  * They are typically called the ‘Deep Ones’ by the humans.


  * They are the creators of black hoof mushroom tea.



 

Humans.  


There’s four human tribes in Shadowgrounds.

The Jenna, the oldest human group that have been around since a time called ‘dawn of war’. They are the Timeless’ adopted children and have survived every single war and feud the Timeless have had with hostile human groups.  


The group started out as small children and young teens, the only survivors of one human tribe being annihilated by another and had fled their burning home, deeply traumatized.

 

  * They fled, running due thinking they were being followed by the attackers for days, until they reached the Wreath Mountains.  

  * The Timeless found them shortly after they entered the Shadowgrounds and were shocked when the children just broke down in tears.  
Seeing no threat in crying children, the Timeless took them in and helped them start a new life in the Shadowgrounds.  

  * The village they live in was built by the Timeless.  

  * The brutal start caused the Jenna to grow misanthropic, both towards other human groups and themselves.  

  * The Jenna are instantly recognizable due to wearing large, elaborately designed masks to hide their facial features that they only take off for washing or if the mask needs repair. They decorate their bodies with colourful symbols.


  * They have participated in all wars that have raged in the Shadowgrounds and have always fought alongside the Timeless.


  * At present, the Jenna have mostly grown out of their hostility towards other humans and get along well with the three other human tribes in the Shadowgrounds.


  * The Jenna are artisans and make beautiful, but odd, art.


  * The youngest generation of Jenna are trying to throw off their past unfriendliness, have taken off their masks and have tried to reach out to humans outside the Shadowgrounds, but are generally not very successful. Likely due to being _very_ socially awkward.  

  * Faith: The Jenna believe the death or removal of the Timeless will turn the Shadowgrounds in the most dangerous place in the world and strive to them safe. They are utterly merciless towards rogue elements.



 

The Dehga, a calm folk that live close to the Wreath Mountains and enjoy garden work so much the Timeless have never not seen one of them at work in one. They are a quiet and meditative people who strive for harmony and betterment in all things.

 

  * They arrived just after the last war the Timeless and Jenna had with hostile forces and settled in hope of bringing some peace to the land. They ended up near the very edge of the Shadowgrounds as they had to hide from the Jenna.


  * Their first encounter with the Timeless was when a group of gatherers found a badly wounded Beyond (at the time named War-Maker) and took him in. Both to help him and attempt to learn about their neighbours.  

  * They are somewhat uncomfortable with Shadow-Dancer and his powers as they are clearly not the same as the rest of the powers of the Timeless. They had him live with them for 20 years, in the hope they could somehow teach him respect for the natural order of things. They were unsuccessful and Shadow-Dancer enjoys meddling with them.


  * They tend to call the Timeless ‘star-cousins’.


  * Faith: The Dehga faith is vague, but seems to revolve mainly around having nice and orderly gardens.



 

The Vikanna, originally a band of women and children from a far off land. They left when they grew bored with their men who were relentlessly fighting their ancient nemesis in what they oddly call an ‘boring’ war. The last time the men took off to fight, the women packed their things on their longboats, set fire to both the village and the boats they weren’t taking with them.   


  * They landed on the Shadowgrounds coast, carrying only large shields to show they had no intention of starting fights with whoever was already there.
  * They are people born for war, cheer as they charge into battle, but outside wartime, they’re a very jubilant lot who hold very long parties. (They’d get along with the Go-Backs really well)


  * They’re also very fond of exploring.
  * Vikanna are known for holding very long parties.


  * They enjoy challenging themselves by hunting the monsters that lurk in the Tomb forest. The bravest seek out Zharo and make him use his altering powers on them. He typically end up turning them into small figurines.


  * Vikanna are very blunt and very honest. Cowardice, cruelty and ambush is heavily frowned upon.   

  * Faith: The Vikanna believe in a small group of gods, but the being named Nid, the World/Soul Eater is the most important in the pantheon.  

  * According to Vianna legend, Nid was tasked with destroying the world by its co-gods in order to remake it, but Nid is as clever as it is greedy. It very quickly stopped obeying the others and set it sights on a limitless food source.   
Souls.


  * Everything slain by a Vikanna is ‘sent’ to Nid. Even though Nid is greedy, it is not particularly demanding and the Vikanna do not do any sort of violent ‘capture somebody and torture’ rituals like Gotara’s Children did.


  * Nid is described as a massive, winged,serpent with many coloured scales.  

  * The other gods are: All Mother Friig-ja, wargod Tir, knowledge keeper Luminoxth and soul-waver Deci.


  * All Mother Friig-ja is the highest ranking of the gods. When a Vikanna die, their souls go to her, unless they decide to give themselves to Nid. She’s depicted as a massive woman with dark skin, grey hair and amber eyes.


  * Wargod Tir, much like the Vikanna, is a joyous, hearty type of person that just happens to like fighting and bloodshed. It’s believed Vikanna who die fighting will be embraced by Tir and join him on hunts and battles. Tir is depicted as a small, bronze man with a big, braided, red beard.


  * Knowledge keeper Luminoxth is bit of a weird one as the Vikanna suggest she strives to ‘steal’ knowledge and keep it to herself. She’s depicted as having six eyes, four arms and scaled charcoal grey skin. (The Timeless are somewhat convinced she’s wearing a weird helmet, but have no explanation for the extra set of of arms.)


  * Soul-weaver Deci creates souls and does so without cease. She’s depicted as having pitchblack eyes, hair of fire and cold, gold skin.


  * The Vikanna believe the Timeless’ two dragons are the children of Nid and is the main reason they ended up in the Shadowgrounds. While they were traveling they saw one of them out hunting and decided to follow.


  * When it comes to the Timeless themselves, the Vikanna treat them as their own.


  * They treat their High Ones with great awe and seem to have incorporated the High Ones’ fall to Abode into their myth and generally regard them as being kin to their gods, but do not actively worship them.


  * The Timeless enjoy the Vikanna’s myth to the point they’ve made statues of their gods and placed them around the Shadowgrounds.



 

The Niarhn, who live by the large rivers within the great chasms of the Shadowgrounds. They’re quiet and have very little to with other tribes in general.

  * They trade fish.
  * They saved Darkfire when she was pushed into one of their chasms.
  * No one actually knows when they showed up. This bothers the Jenna alot.



 

More to be added?


End file.
